Computer anxiety: sex, race and age

✍ Scribed by Faith D. Gilroy; Harsha B. Desai

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1986
• Weight: 528 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0020-7373
• DOI: 10.1016/s0020-7373(86)80084-0

✦ Synopsis

Two studies are described in this article. The first examined antecedents of computer anxiety and the second exposed two groups of subjects who had no previous experience with computers to two treatments designed to lower the anxiety.

Results indicated that for those persons with high anxiety an English composition course treatment in which students used word-processing as a tool was more significantly effective than was a course in computer programming in reducing computer anxiety. The programming course, however, was significantly more effective in reducing anxiety than was no treatment. Women were represented more often than men in the highanxiety conditions. Results are discussed in terms of appropriate training techniques in educational and workplace environments to lower anxiety in vulnerable populations so that all might participate in the technological revolution.